Being a salesperson on LinkedIn in 2016

Sales have evolved so much since the early days of door-to-door. You’re now looking at achieving more success from digital methods – and one of the most successful is the medium of LinkedIn.

But how are you supposed to make the most of LinkedIn when it is swarmed with salespeople and recruiters? You don’t want to get lost in the digital crowd, we get that. So let us show you how to make the most of your LinkedIn.

Find out who you’re calling

How unprofessional does it look calling up a company only to ask them who you’re trying to get a hold of? With LinkedIn, you can more than likely find the exact individual you want to contact. If you use an IP lookup tool on your website, you can use this in conjunction with LinkedIn to make sure you are getting in contact with the key decision makers of the company that is already showing an interest in your business.

So many people have LinkedIn profiles – and all of them have details like what kind of jobs they’ve done previously, what their skills are, and even posts they’ve shared that interest them. Based on all this information, you can make sure that when you do get around to the call, you can tailor your pitch and sound a lot more informed.

Utilise social selling

You might be on your toes just waiting to give that sales pitch, but it’s important you save that for when you've established a solid working relationship with them. Bring it out when you’re in a call or a meeting – but on LinkedIn, it’s more likely to get you blocked than to win you a sale.

Instead, try social selling. Build a relationship with your prospect through your posts and personalised messages. If they get involved in any conversations or groups that you can, logically, get into as well – do it! In some cases, you might like to inflate your lead’s ego. When they write up an opinion or a post, share it. Tell them what you think about what they’ve said, or just let them know what a good job they’ve done expressing something.

Write the perfect message

There is an art to sending the perfect LinkedIn message. Make sure you’re offering something valuable. Not something that you want them to view as valuable, but something they would genuinely appreciate. Pass on a guide or a blog with tips to help them improve an aspect of their business. You want to come across as a friend, someone who wants to help, not a salesperson with ulterior motives.

Additionally, when sending over a link, you should aim to always PURL your leads if you can. This personalised URL will let you know if they’re engaging with what you’re sending, so you can send more. Or it will tell you if they’re ignoring you completely.

Get maximum exposure

Sure, you can use LinkedIn as a nifty tool for finding prospects, but that’s not all. Prospects can also find you. It’s important to make sure that your profile is up to scratch and pulling in the right attention.

It’s all about how you sell yourself. You are a representative of your business, and your LinkedIn profile needs to reflect that. Include your core company values, what features you yourself enjoy in your product set and take a genuine interest in how your business contributes to the B2B world. After all, LinkedIn is the professional network designed to connect salespeople who want to do business with each other.